CHIReview
photo credit: Christina Slaton
Big & Little's
BIG & littles is funky as hell, a great place, and one of our favorite restaurants in River North. Great does not mean fancy, because this place is a fast-food joint. The menu offers all kinds of items you might not expect from a typical fast-food restaurant. Like tacos stuffed to the brim with sushi-grade ahi tuna and blue crab, to giant soft shell crab, to foie gras grilled and plated over fries before getting topped with the duck fat drippings.
Restaurants who specialize in only one of these types of foods have a hard enough time making it this good, and BIG & little’s does most of it top-notch. We encourage you to order anything and everything on the menu, but check the Food Rundown below for our favorites. Remember to bring cash because it’s all they accept, but on the flip side, it’s also BYOB.
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Food Rundown
Beer Battered Cheeseburger
Any of the burgers are good, so take your pick of whatever you want on it. Egg, bacon, pineapple, it’s up to you.
Mango Chutney Taco
Seared and shredded pork with pickled red onion, cilantro, and a mango chutney. Great contrast of flavors with the pork and mango.
Raw Ahi Tuna Taco
A huge portion of sashimi-grade ahi tuna packed into a hard shell tortilla, with ginger, chili paste, sesame seed oil, chili aioli, and a soy-based sweet sauce. The raw salmon taco is equally as good.
Steamed Blue Crab Taco
Fresh and delicious blue crab in a hard shell tortilla, also as fully packed as the ahi tuna.
Softshell Crab Po’Boy
A big ss piece of soft shell crab on a french roll with chili aioli and lime juice. Opt for the Lil version if you want one that’s a little smaller so you can try other things.
Foie Gras Fries
If you like foie gras, this is a must-try. Two perfectly seasoned and grilled strips of foie gras carefully plated over a bed of twice-fried potatoes.
Kimchi Fries
A whole lot of kimchi with a sweet sauce over a whole lot of fries. Delicious.